Gaza: The state of being eyeless
In a new twist, Israel has recently declared the Gaza strip “hostile territory”, indicating that it is ready to inflict new levels of collective punishment.
By Najeeb Mubarki, TNN |
Gaza is going down the memory hole. While in Orwell’s 1984, the memory hole was the slot into which true reports of an event were consigned, today the Gaza strip seems to have virtually become such a zone of obliteration itself. But that forgetting is the fate of all Palestine. What Nelson Mandela called the “greatest moral issue of our age” is perhaps too great an injustice, too inconvenient a truth, to be allowed space in newsprint and on airwaves for long. World conscience can’t be bothered too much.
Meanwhile, the spin masters keep tweaking any news allowed to emerge from this insanely crowded prison of around 1.5 million living within a mere 380 square kms. Thus, we hear of a “clash” between an Israeli armoured bulldozer and children pelting stones; of an “engagement” between sleeping families and 500-lb bombs; of Palestinians with small arms “fighting” F-16s.
The unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and the removal of the settlements — which occupied a third of the land — wasn’t a loosening of the siege. Israel controls the land, air and sea space in Gaza. Imposing an economic blockade has long been a facet of Israeli policy towards the occupied territories. These ‘closures’ were intensified after Hamas’ election triumph as part of Israel’s drive to squeeze the regime.
Collective punishment of the Palestinian population is the cornerstone of Israeli ‘security’ policy. In a new twist, Israel has recently declared the Gaza strip “hostile territory”, indicating that it is ready to inflict new levels of collective punishment on the besieged civilian population. This will include cutting off the already paltry supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel it allows the residents of Gaza.
It is almost totally futile to point out that Israel once patronised Hamas, when it used the Islamic movement to undermine the PLO; that Israel has an obligation, under international law, to be responsible for the well-being of the civilian population as an occupying force; or that this declaration (as even the hardline Jerusalem Post noted) has no basis in international jurisprudence.
But then, the Zionist state has always seemed to treat the Palestinians like a form of lower biological life, with the international community practically inured to the political and physical extermination of the occupied. We are now all set for a new stage in this mass murder — except, it’s not quite real for most. “The occupied territories and the Palestinians living there are slowly becoming virtual realities,” mused an editorial in the Haaretz. Reach for that memory hole.
Meanwhile, the spin masters keep tweaking any news allowed to emerge from this insanely crowded prison of around 1.5 million living within a mere 380 square kms. Thus, we hear of a “clash” between an Israeli armoured bulldozer and children pelting stones; of an “engagement” between sleeping families and 500-lb bombs; of Palestinians with small arms “fighting” F-16s.
The unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and the removal of the settlements — which occupied a third of the land — wasn’t a loosening of the siege. Israel controls the land, air and sea space in Gaza. Imposing an economic blockade has long been a facet of Israeli policy towards the occupied territories. These ‘closures’ were intensified after Hamas’ election triumph as part of Israel’s drive to squeeze the regime.
Collective punishment of the Palestinian population is the cornerstone of Israeli ‘security’ policy. In a new twist, Israel has recently declared the Gaza strip “hostile territory”, indicating that it is ready to inflict new levels of collective punishment on the besieged civilian population. This will include cutting off the already paltry supplies of food, water, electricity and fuel it allows the residents of Gaza.
It is almost totally futile to point out that Israel once patronised Hamas, when it used the Islamic movement to undermine the PLO; that Israel has an obligation, under international law, to be responsible for the well-being of the civilian population as an occupying force; or that this declaration (as even the hardline Jerusalem Post noted) has no basis in international jurisprudence.
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The effects of such a closure on the population of Gaza are likely to be horrifying. Even before this new move, Israeli closures and the economic blockade have already had a destructive effect: reports by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics confirm that in 2006, the rate of poverty in Gaza according to consumption data was 50.7% (rising to 79.3% in income date levels), while deep poverty touched 34.8% and 66.7% according to consumption and income data respectively. Add starvation, incredible levels of surveillance, frequent military strikes and one might get close to the real picture. And yes, one could add that about 40% of the affected total population here comprises children under the age of 15. But then, the Zionist state has always seemed to treat the Palestinians like a form of lower biological life, with the international community practically inured to the political and physical extermination of the occupied. We are now all set for a new stage in this mass murder — except, it’s not quite real for most. “The occupied territories and the Palestinians living there are slowly becoming virtual realities,” mused an editorial in the Haaretz. Reach for that memory hole.
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